Maritime Labour Convention 2006 Coming Into Force

The International Labour Organisation's Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (the "Convention") comes into force on 20 August 2013. It consolidates and updates the existing extensive instruments currently in place.

The Convention, dubbed as the "seafarers' international bill of rights" is seen as having two primary purposes:

1. to bring the system of protection contained in existing labour standards closer to the workers concerned, in a form consistent with the rapidly developing, globalised sector; and
2. to improve the applicability of the system so that shipowners and governments interested in providing decent conditions of work do not have to bear an unequal burden in ensuring protection.